Italian Mafia!
These very sophisticated, cultured gangs and their lords project a very interetsing picture with their starched hats, cigar rolling in the mouth and a typical drawl saying**, "If you want me, come and get me!".
The Mafia has always been a cynosure of the eyes of the American Law. The most organised crime racket right under the nose of the most feared law enforcers!
This movie is based on a true story of Jackie DiNorscio, a mafia lord, who fought his own battle as a lawyer in one of the longest trial cases in the history of American law that went for nearly as long as **21 months!
The Director: Sidney Lumet
He is a courtroom drama man. His film life of making such films as 12 Angry Men(1957), Serpico(1973) and The Verdict(1982) amoungst a lot of others have found their way into Americas 100 Most Inspiring Movies of all times. What happens here in FMG is that perhaps he was dealing with a HOT script and did not know how to best handle it. It lacks the drama but is full of funny quotes and hence can be easily termed as a COMEDY!
I viewed it as a Comedy!
Here goes;
Vin Diesel(Jackie DiNorscio), ** is a goombah, who is caught by the(in)famous FBI along with 19 other deadly racketeers, extortionists, drug dealers and are being persecuted by the law for 76 counts of illegal dealings which also include murders!
What happens when you have a paunchy Vin Diesel delivering dialogues like, "When they F with me, they are waking a sleeping giant!" Now, that is not a snarly, teeth crushing mean statement is it? Believe me it evokes laughter. Now, imagine the above scenario where 20 hardcore criminals are being tried and one Prosecution lawyer delivering his opening statement, you have twenty other lawyers delivering their opening statement too right! The opening statement runs into days. When it is the turn of Vin, he says very simply by dramatically turning towards the jury, "I am not a Gangster, I am a Gagster". The jury just laughs!
Vin is offered a deal, testify against his friends and get a reduction on his sentence. He replies back, "I dont rat on my friends"! Vin is already serving a 30 year sentence when he has entered the case here! He is also taking expert advice from Ben Klandis(Peter Dinklage), a midget(actually), who is the brain in the lawyers entourage. He is articulate, has a very strong baritone and has his assistant roll out a podium from where he delivers punches thatmakes the prosecution witnesses squirm. Vin is not so much into defending himself than his friends. He just loves Nick Calabrese(Alex Rocco) even though Nick tells him very clearly, "You use my name one more time and I will cut your heart out!". When its the turn of one agent to testify on how he knew they were Italians, Vin just tears him to shreds and is thus exposing the pre conceived notions these agents have and use during such truthful occassions!
Vin truly delivers a knockout punch when his own cousin, who has turned into a witness for the prosecution, when he asks him that he forgave him inspit of him pumping 4 bullets into his body but asks the court police to remove his cousin from the courthouse or he would kill him for ratting on his family!
Vins morality doesnt really measure up because he is not as much fazed by murder, as much by disloyalty which he considers a bigger crime. He forgave his cousin who tried to murder him and then on his closing statement says, "If at all you convict us of the crimes, let my brothers go but FIND ME GUILTY!". Thats where the title comes from.
The Judge(Ron Silver), would have loved to cut Vin from the case and even warns him for contempt but Vin wins over and apologises for his ill manners as he is, apart from being an unqualified lawyer, not even completed GRADE school! Are we now leaning towards the underdog? Yes, we are. Vin wins you over with his antics, his fight with the jail officers, his ability to be simple and witty and to make the jury laugh. He firmly believes that, **A laughing Jury is not a Hanging Jury.
*I have not gone into details of the cast as I would have exhausted the word limit. I have also deliberately avoided the comic scenes as I would have gone beyond 15000 words! But in a nutshell, this film will make you laugh, swell with pride and realise that there is Honor amoung Thieves too!
This movie is not thrilling, but it is very interesting. It’s not even really about a particular trial, but about a system that can only work if there are no Vins to point out its absurdities. The trial comes down to: Can Vin get away with his act? And if he does, what next? This is basically a battle between holders of logic and practiced law versus the’wise guy’.
That is really very entertaining!
There is an extensive use of profanities so please keep your little ones away!
Watch it!